Water from the Well

Tante Lydia taught my sister how to drop a bucket into the well while avoiding the scum on the water's surface. Lydia also said a live trout would keep the well water clean.

My great aunts used well water to drink and bathe. They would have to go to the hand-dug well and drop a bucket down and hoist it back up with a block and tackle pulley. My sister Jean was one of many nieces and nephews to get the lesson on keeping the floating scum and bug carcasses out of the drinking water... a weighted bucket would crash through the surface and a quick retrieval would cause the surface water to overflow the bucket, draining off the scum as you wheeled it back up the shaft.

This is a lost art in our modern sink and tap water lives, but hey... good knowledge if you plan on building a homestead in the back country.